and I'm sayin' it here.

A to Z: Selling Our House (Letter O)

The letter O is featured prominently in this compelling, informative, and well lit sign. Hats off to the Irish for this one.

Still feeling under the weather so this will be short.

The sign went up. “Open House today 10 am – 2 pm” The listing had run for several days with a fair amount of interest. The realtor and assistant were manning the event and were optimistic. The place looked great, and well it should have after the month of preparation, and thousands of dollars of love and care. The owners had opted to be out of town which was fine with the realtor. It was always easier that way.

Although it doesn’t often happen like this, except in movies (or on HGTV), the first couple in the door spent a long time looking things over, looking at the house from different angles and wandering the shady yard. They were interested and planning.

The third party came 45 minutes later and were clearly investors looking for income property. They were setting up an offer, unofficially, when the first couple came back in and overheard their conversation. By this time, the planners had already envisioned themselves living in the upper story of the loft house. Their kids were happily taking over the bedrooms on the ground floor and their parents were living next door in the second house. The investors were a threat to the plan. There was nothing to do but offer full price, immediately. Or maybe over the asking price just to make sure.

And so it was that the house elicited an offer on the first open house, having only been on the market for four days. The couple was pre-approved with a credible loan. Since the house was empty and waiting, had been inspected and certified, there was nothing to delay the sale. The closing was set in two weeks and went off without a hitch. The Oneacrewoods passed to new ownership, and it was bittersweet.

Disclaimer: This account is entirely fictional and is the product of the letter O. The house has not yet listed or had an Open House. But, it is possible something like this could happen, just sayin’…

Something like that DID happen when we sold my dad’s house. Our realtor told us what kind of upgrades we needed to do on the 33 year old house. She gave us excellent advice on painting and presentation, and set a reasonable time to take care of everything before listing. One of my brothers-in-law is a contractor and did all the electrical and repair work. (He also loves to organize and run yard sales — ours was very successful.) My sisters and I did all the yard work, cleaning, wallpaper removal, and painting. Then we listed it, scheduled an open house for what turned out to be a rare rainy Sunday in San Diego, had 5 sets of visitors, received 3 offers by Tuesday (the lowest one of which our realtor called “a joke”), accepted an offer that exceeded our asking price, and entered escrow on Thursday.